Books - Review

Story of Ruby Lennox and several generations of her family from the Boer war to the 1990's. Lots of family tragedy as there is a tendency for people to die prematurely in a variety of ways, never mind all the animals who die in the great pet-shop fire. We also have Ruby's own personal tragedy when she is only four years old.

Very good, excellent beginning with Ruby narrating her own birth and despite all the death and gloom, very believable characters, mostly flawed mothers, fathers and siblings. and funny too in places.

Jackson Brodie is an ex-cop private investigator who gets dragged into lots of murder investigations. People seem to get killed all over the place, although admittedly, some of them were 20 years ago. Never mind he manages to sort most of it out in the end, although it is all a bit sad really.

Pretty good, easy read, a few too many coincidences though maybe?

Jo survives a traumatic childhood incident when her mum and siblings are murdered, but when the murderer is released from jail 30 years later she has more problems to cope with, as she gets kidnapped by her husband's criminal rivals. Chief Inspector Louise gets involved in all this, as does Jackson Brodie, mainly by a series of slightly unbelievable coincidences, especially the train crash, as Bodie is only on the train by mistake, and it just happens to crash outside Reggie's front door... Mind you one of the themes of this literary detective thriller is fate, so maybe it was all just meant to happen.

Quite good really. Liked the Reggie character a lot, and the dog, Sadie, was excellent. And I spotted a theme!

The story of the life of Teddy, a World War 2 bomber pilot flying Halifaxes over Germany. The story jumps around in time and perspective so we view all aspects of Teddy's life from his and others points of view, and how his war experiences affect the whole of his life and relationships.

Excellent, really good story, realistic and totally believable, some great flying sequences, and a brilliant twist at the end!

A Jackson Brodie story, set at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, begins with a man attacked during a road rage incident, the victim defended by a mild-mannered author of mystery novels. But the plot thickens considerably as the author spends a drugged night with his rescued road rage victim and Brodie discovers the body of a young woman on a beach, only to (slightly carelessly), allow the sea to carry it away. Connections? Of course!

Pretty good twisty tale, a good choice for 800th book in the database!

Tracy, the shopping mall security chief acquires a daughter and Jackson Brodie is trying to find an (adopted) client's true identity. Lots of other characters milling round too.

This was probably better than a 7 but I think I was finding it hard to concentrate and found it a bit confusing. Felt like a little bit of a slog to finish.

Ursula Todd is born on a snowy night in 1910 - again and again. Each life she live slightly differently, with each time only the vaguest sense of other lives lived.

Very good, great story.

Miss Juliet Armstrong wants to do her bit for the war effort and somehow ends up working as a spy. She also wants to fall in love and work for the BBC.

Very good, enjoyed it a lot. Nice twisty story